Policy Analysis
LeoMessi
Policyanalysisdecember.docxChhetri2
Student’s name: Sheekha Chhetri
Institutional Affiliation: Jacksonville State University
Course name: The Analysis of Policy
Professor’s name: Dr. Arjola Balilaj
Final Exam of “The Analysis of Policy”
Due Date: 5th December 2021
“Gun Violence in the United States”
1. Introduction
Simply, gun violence is violence that is committed with the use of guns but results in taking the lives of many innocent individuals not even related to it. In 2019, gun violence killed 39,707 numbers of people in the United States. Gun violence, just another social issue which not only harms the one who owns it but the whole society and the country. The research poll done by Pew Research Center Survey found that 60% of Americans favored the establishment of stronger laws for gun violence, which was only supported by 57% in 2018 and 52% in 2017. Access to firearms leads to many School shootings, mass shootings, suicides, and domestic abuse. Gun violence is considered a national public health issue and it includes violent crime, unintentional death, and suicide, homicide, and injury. Community gun violence, the most common gun violence, can occur at any public place like the park, streets, malls, or markets in cities across the United States. Consequently, directly or indirectly, the whole neighborhood is affected and exposed which impacts the adverse health effects, paralyzed and mentally traumatized people for long. According to the educational fund to stop gun violence, gun violence is the leading cause of death for Black males under age 55 and the second leading cause of death for Hispanic/Latino males under the age of 34. This heart-wrenching social problem has to be the topic of discussion not only to the owner who lost their beloved ones due to gun violence but to the whole society, the state, and the country as it is related to both economy and health. Gun violence and death seem to be the next pandemic in the United States. Therefore, policymakers have to focus more on this issue and provide funds to research more in this field.
We see gun violence doesn’t discriminate against people so in recent years, along with the adults, we have heard the news of school children being killed because of gun violence. The current article posted by “The Washington Post” on October 22 states that after the reopening of school in 2021, 55 school shootings already occurred only this September, which is more than double the total for most full years in the past. Rich or poor, towns or cities, black or white, it hits randomly and there’s no doubt.
Hence, the problem of gun violence hasn’t left any country or community behind. Each and everyone is directly or indirectly affected due to this problem. There’s no doubt that all the families, communities, adults, children along with international students or tourists are directly affected by gun violence. Therefore, it is a must for citizens to be concerned about this issue and for parents to teach their children the adverse effect of the use of guns. Everyone has the right to life and one cannot afford to die just because the next person to him wants it to happen. Gun violence violates the fundamental right of an individual, the right to life, and is considered a human rights issue globally. This problem affects the social, mental, physical wellbeing as well as the emotional side of an induvial or family along with children, so it is must to discuss more on this issue and work together to stop the regulation of gun violence and pressurize the government to take this issue seriously and make bills and laws to stop or minimize it. I decided to write my paper concerning gun violence so that the reader could get an overview of how the problem is disturbing the whole country as it not only affects a particular community instead affect the whole community and country, and create so much negative impact and death of people just in the blink of an eye. Therefore, the problem of gun violence has to be discussed throughout the community, and in federal, state, or local government along with health and social services agencies, and families to prevent it.
Addressing this issue, some of the policy options to control this problem would be the better background check of the buyers, reducing easy access to dangerous weapons, establishing a culture of gun safety, supporting gun violence research, focusing on mental health and wellbeing, advancing gun safety and self-defense technology. Some of the criteria to analyze these options would possibly be risks, uncertainty, economic criteria.
2. Background of the Issue, Previous Research, Evidence
a. How did the issue originate?
The problem of gun violence started long ago in the United States and also globally. The data present that every year more than 39,000 men, women, including children are being killed in the United States. Recently, the firearm is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.
b. What is the historical background of the issue?
Gun violence started in the United States before the 1900s. The mass shooting which took place at the University of Texas at Austin in 1996 is regarded as the deadliest mass murder in US history, 16 people were killed and 31 others were hurt within 96 minutes. Homicides rates in many cities were comparatively in the past with comparison to present times. The use of handguns was increased which increased homicide rates during the 1980s. Lower-income and unemployment factors were taken as a reason for an increase in homicide. Apart from this, during the 1990s, the rise in consumption of crack cocaine among the youths around the cities across the country is taken as the major factor for the increase in gun violence.
c. Are there critical incidents that emphasize the importance of the issue?
President Biden address gun violence as an epidemic. The incidents caused by gun violence are many. In the United States, from the year 2009 to 2016, 156 mass shootings have occurred with the death of 848 people, and the in-between year 2013 to 2018, 316 incidents of gunfire on school occurred. Similarly, on October 1, 2017, a gunman killed 60 people and harmed hundreds of others. Unfortunately, these cases emphasize the importance of the issue and are the topic for discussion throughout the country for the public, politicians, and policymakers
d. What are some ethical debates, or controversies associated with the issue?
The second amendment at the time of the Constitutional Convention established the fundamental rights for an individual in the United States citizens to possess firearms. Since then, there are a lot of debates going on among the political parties and on constitutional backgrounds. The debate for gun violence and gun control has been continued for years till the date. Most of the debate on gun violence is a concern for handguns. From the democrat's side, they prefer strict gun control steps for addressing the problem so, in March 2021, the House of Representatives passed two gun control bills in which speaker Nancy Pelosi stated: “solution will save lives” whereas, on the other hand, most of the Republicans disagree arguing as Sen. Ted Cruz has that proposed laws seeking to require background checks on all firearms sales and transfers and to ban assault weapons are “ridiculous theater” that fail to reduce mass shootings.
e. Have there been any prior policies/laws/regulations that have tried to address this issue? If so, what were their outcomes?
Since gun violence come into existence, many policies and laws have been made to address this issue and do gun control. Congress approved $25 million in federal funding to study the safety and divide the money between the National Institutes of Health and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention for examining gun violence from the perspective of public health. Recently, a bill has been introduced in the House named “H.R.125-Gun Safety: Not Sorry Act of 2021 but it is still in progress. Similarly, a bill was introduced in 2019, H.R.1112- Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019 which has been passed by the House but is yet left to be law. According to this bill, there must be background check requirements applicable to proposed firearm transfers from a federal firearm licensee to an unlicensed person.
f. What did previous research say about this issue?
According to the Gun violence research done by The Educational fund To Stop Gun Violence, in July 2020: it states that gun violence is a public health threat in the United States. It also provides the data that on average, every year more than 37,000 Americans are killed by a gun. Sadly, only a little money is spent by the country and states to research more on this issue. Next, the article prepared by Matthew Miller and David Hemenway, named as Guns and Suicide in the United States describe suicides cases in the United States caused by misuse of the gun where they describe in 2005, suicide was the second leading death in the United States and half of the suicide was gun suicide. They also state owning a gun not only has a risk for the one who owns it but also to the gun owner’s family and children. Since this article has been prepared from the health worker's perspective, they recommend physicians and other health workers to be able to access those people who try to suicide have access to guns or firearms to help the families and patients to come out from suicidal feelings.
3.Establish Criteria for Evaluating Policy options/alternatives
4. Existing and/or Emerging Policy Options or Alternatives (only 2)
a. What is the name of the policy/act/law/regulation?
Recently, the House approved a bill “The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021.”
b. What aspect of the problem is current policies (or programs) trying to solve?
The bill “The Bipartisan Background Check Acts of 2021”, introduced in the House by Mike Thompson on March 3, 2021, says new background check for transferring firearms between private parties and prohibits the transfer of firearms between private parties, and importers take possession of firearms to conduct a background check. This bill prohibits individuals from gun purchase and background checks will stop the potential criminals from buying guns which could otherwise possibly result in massive devastation or shootings.
c. What aspect of the problem are other policy alternatives trying to solve?
Raising the age bar to buy guns could be effective policy alternatives for reducing the problems created by gun violence. This policy option increases the age of gun buyers from 18 to 21. Young people at the age of only 18 are at high risk of involving in a crime or attempting suicide, and increasing the minimum age law for purchasing guns will minimize the cases of suicides and help to protect youths and communities from large destruction and deaths.
d. Who (individual or group) is proposing this policy alternative? Or who, supported and supports the current policy?
The policy of raising the minimum age was proposed and introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein on May 9, 2019. After proposing this policy, he stated, “This bill is very simple: It brings equity to federal law when it comes to handgun and assault rifle purchases, requiring anyone buying either to be at least 21 years old. If you can’t buy a beer, you shouldn’t be able to buy an AR-15. It’s simple logic, and this effort should have strong bipartisan support.”
The current bill mentioned is supported by Democrats except for one Jared Golden, majority of American, 8 Republicans, and other independents.
e. Why do the people, groups, or policy actors that support each alternative, support them?
People, groups, or policy actors, who support the alternatives have the same motive and want to bring the similar changes in the law and in the society. They work together to bring the effective and positive change in the law of the country so that the community and the country would be benefited from it. What they know is, an individual alone cannot change the policy and it has to be supported by majority for anything to happen. They have the power to influence on the system and government and affect the outcomes of any decisions being made. Therefore, supporting each other or the alternatives made will help them achieve the desired results.
f. Who wants to change the current policy? Why?
Regarding the current policy introduced, “The Bipartisan Background check of 2021” one democrat and the House Republicans were against this policy. They stated that the legislation will not make it difficult for criminals to receive weapons but will create problems for law-abiding citizens to purchase firearms.
5. The Analysis Section
In this section of the paper, you will use the selected criteria established in section 4 to analyze each of the policy alternatives you have discussed in section 5. This should be a transparent process, with data and results listed explicitly. If possible, you can use a matrix to indicate the process.
7-Recommandations and Implementation
This is where you make an informed policy recommendation, which logically flows from your informed, systematic, and evidence-based analysis. This section serves as the conclusion of your paper. Hence, you should summarize the preferred policy option and justify why it is preferred over the other option. Then answer the following questions:
Many bills have been already introduced in the House to stop the problem of gun violence. So many are still pending and being discussed between the parties whether to change them into law or not. Out of the policy options, I would prefer the policy of “Supporting communities by enhancing employment opportunities for reducing crime and balance in the economy.”
a. How does this recommendation solve the policy issue/problem at hand?
We see, most of the time, unemployed people are engaged in crime. Therefore, there should be equal access to education, and all other opportunities to everyone, and programs should be made especially for young people to stop gun violence. The country should invest in generating more employment opportunities. As per Prevention institute in their article: Gun violence must stop: Here’s what we can do to prevent more deaths, they explained, a study of One Summer Chicago Plus, which is a job designed to reduce gun violence and prepare the youth from most violence city to labor market explained that the people arrested for violent crime was found to be decreased by 43%. A report presented by “The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence” states there’s a huge impact of gun violence in the economy and describes the data of the study of gun violence done in Minneapolis which found one homicide is related to a decrease in average home values of $22,000. Hence, sustainable economic development and opportunities will promote numerous chances, enhance understanding, improve the economic status of people which will minimize gun violence.
So many policy alternatives and recommendations have been already discussed by different organizations. I would like to highlight some other alternatives recommended already by the Prevention Institute that could be effective if introduced as policy: establishing a culture of gun safety, supporting research-based on gun violence, reducing concentrated disadvantage, and increasing employment opportunities. Investing to promote mental wellbeing could be another recommendation for controlling gun violence. Establishing the culture of gun safety will possibly reduce the access of any kind of firework to the youths and other individuals who are at high risk of harming others or for themselves, and it requires the safe and secure storage of available guns which will decrease the number of deaths. Similarly, states or legislation should support and fund research which is based on gun violence or gun control so that different sectors of the country could contribute to making a reasonable solution to stop this problem. Apart from that, the citizen will have the access to liable information regarding the issue and they can contribute something from their side. Moreover, apart from all these recommendations given, I feel there’s a huge role of own’s mental state in doing anything. We must of the time deny accepting the truth behind the devastation created by our mental state. There’s no second thought in this. Therefore, promoting mental health among all people could not only minimize gun violence but many other forms of violence. Furthermore, to stop gun violence, only the state or legislation, or law isn’t enough. Passed law should be effectively implemented into actions and followed by every citizen. There should be zero tolerance and no excuse for the one who is found involved in such life-taking activities. For this, every individual, the communities, lawmakers, and government along with other concerned departments should work together so that we can feel safe walking in our society.
b. What policy-making body/actor/agency/group needs to approve this policy alternative?
The alternative recommended should be discussed by the political parties, state advisers, policymakers, bureaucrats, media, and other agencies and should be approved by the House and Senate so that it could be passed into law.
c. What are some ethical, political, legal, or financial obstacles you anticipate in the implementation of your recommended policy option?
d. If your policy recommendation were to be approved, how long it will be before we see results?
References:
Gun Violence. (2021)., https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/arms-control/gun-violence/
Peer-Reviewed Research, Commentaries, and Perspectives on Gun Violence. https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/news/peer-reviewed-research-commentaries-perspectives-gun-violence
Miller, Hemenway, M. (2021). Guns and Suicide in the United States | NEJM. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923
https://efsgv.org/learn/type-of-gun-violence/gun-violence-in-the-united-states/
Watkins, C. (2021). Gun Control: The Debate and Public Policy. https://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6105/610502.html
Phillips, D., & Romanek, D. (2021). Gun Violence: a Brief Cultural History | Maxwell Museum. https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/exhibits/temporary/gun-violence-brief-cultural-history
Gun Violence, Prevention of (Position Paper). (2021) https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/gun-violence.html
Opinion | School shootings are increasing — and changing. Easily accessible guns are to blame. – The Washington Post. (2021). https://indexedworldnews.com/2021/10/08/opinion-school-shootings-are-increasing-and-changing-easily-accessible-guns-are-to-blame-the-washington-post/
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8/text
Chairman Thompson, Joined by Democrats and Republicans, Reintroduce Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021. (2021). https://mikethompson.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/chairman-thompson-joined-by-democrats-and-republicans-reintroduce-bipartisan
Community Gun Violence - The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. (2020). https://efsgv.org/learn/type-of-gun-violence/community-gun-violence/
